Systems, methods, and media for dynamically generating a portal site map

ABSTRACT

Systems, methods and media for dynamically generating a portal site map, including portlets of the portal site map, are disclosed. Embodiments may include determining a root node of a navigational construct of a portal site, where the root node has one or more child nodes. Embodiments may further include recursively crawling through the one or more child nodes of the root node to discover a composition subtree for at least one of the child nodes, the composition subtree comprising information relating to one or more portlets associated with at least one of the child nodes. Embodiments may further include generating a portal site map having an indication of the one or more child nodes and an indication of the one or more portlets associated with at least one of the child nodes. Further embodiments may include generating a portlet response based on the generated portal site map.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention is in the field of data processing systems and, inparticular, to systems, methods and media for dynamically generating asite map for a portal site, including a site map containing portlets ofthe portal site.

BACKGROUND

Personal computer systems are well known in the art. They have attainedwidespread use for providing computer power to many segments of today'smodern society. Personal computers (PCs) may be defined as a desktop,floor standing, or portable microcomputer that includes a system unithaving a central processing unit (CPU) and associated volatile andnon-volatile memory, including random access memory (RAM) and basicinput/output system read only memory (BIOS ROM), a system monitor, akeyboard, one or more flexible diskette drives, a CD-ROM or DVD-ROMdrive, a fixed disk storage drive (also known as a “hard drive”), apointing device such as a mouse, and an optional network interfaceadapter. One of the distinguishing characteristics of these systems isthe use of a motherboard or system planar to electrically connect thesecomponents together. The use of mobile computing devices, such asnotebook PCs, personal digital assistants (PDAs), sophisticated wirelessphones, etc., has also become widespread. Mobile computing devicestypically exchange some functionality or performance when compared totraditional PCs in exchange for smaller size, portable power, andmobility.

Networks such as the Internet and corporate intranets provide amechanism for users to transfer data among computers for informationsharing, workplace collaboration, data collection, etc. Users gainaccess to networks such as the Internet by accessing a web server viapersonal Internet service providers (ISP's), broadband networkconnections, or high speed network connections through office systems.Typically, a user will view Internet or intranet content using a graphicbrowser application such as Microsoft Corporation's Internet Explorer™,Netscape Communication Corporation's Navigator™, Mozilla Foundation'sMozilla, Apple Corporation's Safari™, etc. Browsers, at their most basiclevel of operation, permit users to connect to a given network site,download informational content from that site, and display thatinformation to the user. To view additional information, the userdesignates a new network address (such as by selecting a link) whosecontents then replace the previously displayed information on the user'scomputer display.

As the amount of information available to users continues todramatically increase, portal sites (known also as portals) have becomemore and more popular for aggregating and displaying information tousers. Portals are an entry point or gateway for access to other websites and information and provide a single point of access to a widevariety of content, data, knowledge, and services throughout anenterprise or network. As such, they have become increasingly popularwith users as a starting point (often designated as their “home page”,the first page displayed when they start their browser) for their use ofa network. Publicly accessible Internet portals include Yahoo!Corporation's My Yahoo!®, Microsoft Corporation's MSN®, GoogleCorporation's Google™ News, etc. Private portals, including Time WarnerInc.'s America On-Line (AOL®) service, are also popular. Many largecompanies also provide portals on their corporate intranet for use byall of their employees or groups of employees. Portal software mayinclude International Business Machines Corp.'s (IBM®'s) WebSphere®integration and application infrastructure software or other software.

Portals allow a user to view content or links to multiple other sites(at different network addresses) simultaneously on one display, ratherthan forcing users to only view content from one site at a time. AnInternet portal could, for example, simultaneously provide users withcontent from a news service, weather service, sports score service,etc., with each service potentially being provided by a differentnetwork site. If the user desired more information from any of thoseservices, the user could select the link to that service and the portalwould facilitate the connection between the user and the other site.Each application or module of a portal is often called a portlet, whichis a reusable web component that displays relevant information to portalusers. Portal users may typically modify the particular portletsdisplayed on a portal as well as their location or configuration.

Often when navigating a web site such as a portal, a user may get ‘lost’and be unable to find the content or functionality for which they arelooking. On relatively static sites, one common strategy for addressingthe problem of the lost user is the addition of a site map to the website. A site map is a high-level visual representation of theorganization of the web site's content. Site maps can be a veryeffective usability enhancement, but their usefulness decreasesdramatically when the site organization is no longer static, as the sitemap may not reflect recent changes or differences between users. Aportal allows the location of content and functionality of a web site tobe dynamic based on end user customization through the use of portlets.With portal technology, a static site map created by the web developerno longer has meaning as any portlet customization by the end userautomatically creates a new site organization, which in turn results innew site navigation. As a result, any user-initiated customization ofportals or portals renders the site map invalid.

One solution to this problem is to use IBM®'s WebSphere® Portal Serversoftware to generate a dynamic site map to the page level. Such asolution, however, does not identify portlets contained on the portalpages, making it impossible for the user to find portlets or links tofunctionality contained within a portlet. Another solution to theproblem would be for a help desk provider to interrogate and navigate anend user's machine (with installed help desk software) to find contentor functionality for the user. This solution, however, is highlyinvasive and labor-intensive. There is, therefore, a need for aneffective mechanism for dynamically generating a site map for a portal,including any portlets. There is an even greater need for such a systemwhen users modify the selected portlets or their location.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The problems identified above are in large part addressed by systems,methods and media for dynamically generating a portal site map,including portlets of the portal site map, are disclosed. Embodimentsmay include determining a root node of a navigational construct of aportal site, where the root node has one or more child nodes.Embodiments may further include recursively crawling through the one ormore child nodes of the root node to discover a composition subtree forat least one of the child nodes, the composition subtree comprisinginformation relating to one or more portlets associated with at leastone of the child nodes. Embodiments may further include generating aportal site map having an indication of the one or more child nodes andan indication of the one or more portlets associated with at least oneof the child nodes. Further embodiments may include generating a portletresponse based on the generated portal site map.

Another embodiment provides a machine-accessible medium containinginstructions effective, when executing in a data processing system, tocause the system to perform a series of operations for dynamicallygenerating a portal site map. The series of operations generallyincludes determining a root node of a navigational construct of a portalsite, where the root node has one or more child nodes. The series ofoperations may further include recursively crawling through the one ormore child nodes of the root node to discover a composition subtree forat least one of the child nodes, the composition subtree comprisinginformation relating to one or more portlets associated with at leastone of the child nodes. The series of operations may further includegenerating a portal site map having an indication of the one or morechild nodes and an indication of the one or more portlets associatedwith at least one of the child nodes. In a further embodiment, theseries of operations includes generating a portlet response based on thegenerated portal site map.

A further embodiment provides a portal site mapping system. The portalsite mapping system may generally include a communications module incommunication with a client computer system via a network and a portalpage aggregator to aggregate content from one or more portlets togenerate a portal response for transmission to the client computersystem. The portal site mapping system may further include a dynamicsite map portlet in communication with the portal page aggregator todynamically generate a portal site map, where the portal site mapincludes information relating to one or more portlets.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent uponreading the following detailed description and upon reference to theaccompanying drawings in which, like references may indicate similarelements:

FIG. 1 depicts an environment for a portal site mapping system with adynamic site map portlet according to one embodiment;

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of one embodiment of a computer systemsuitable for use as a component of the IM system;

FIG. 3 depicts a conceptual illustration of software components of aportal server with a dynamic site map portlet according to oneembodiment;

FIG. 4 depicts an example of a flow chart for generating a portal pageand a portal site map according to one embodiment;

FIG. 5 depicts an example of a flow chart for recursively crawlingthrough navigation nodes and their composition subtrees according to oneembodiment;

FIG. 6 depicts an example of a flow chart for determining thearrangement and content of portlets on a portal page according to oneembodiment; and

FIG. 7 depicts an example of a generated dynamic portal site mapaccording to one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

The following is a detailed description of example embodiments of theinvention depicted in the accompanying drawings. The example embodimentsare in such detail as to clearly communicate the invention. However, theamount of detail offered is not intended to limit the anticipatedvariations of embodiments; on the contrary, the intention is to coverall modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within thespirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appendedclaims. The descriptions below are designed to make such embodimentsobvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Generally speaking, systems, methods and media for dynamicallygenerating a portal site map, including portlets of the portal site map,are disclosed. Embodiments may include determining a root node of anavigational construct of a portal site, where the root node has one ormore child nodes. Embodiments may further include recursively crawlingthrough the one or more child nodes of the root node to discover acomposition subtree for at least one of the child nodes, the compositionsubtree comprising information relating to one or more portletsassociated with at least one of the child nodes. Embodiments may furtherinclude generating a portal site map having an indication of the one ormore child nodes and an indication of the one or more portletsassociated with at least one of the child nodes. Further embodiments mayinclude generating a portlet response based on the generated portal sitemap.

The system and methodology of the disclosed embodiments provides for aneffective and efficient way of generating a portal site map. Bydynamically interrogating the nodes of a portal, the disclosed systemmay generate a portal site map that includes each page of a portal siteas well as the portlets on each page. Portal users may use the generatedportal site map to orient themselves within the portal, find contentwith which they were not familiar, or to navigate the portal site. Thedynamic nature of the disclosed system provides an up-to-date portalsite map that is advantageously independent of user-initiatedcustomization or selection of portlets.

While specific embodiments will be described below with reference toparticular configurations of hardware and/or software, those of skill inthe art will realize that embodiments of the present invention mayadvantageously be implemented with other substantially equivalenthardware and/or software systems. Aspects of the invention describedherein may be stored or distributed on computer-readable media,including magnetic and optically readable and removable computer disks,as well as distributed electronically over the Internet or over othernetworks, including wireless networks. Data structures and transmissionof data (including wireless transmission) particular to aspects of theinvention are also encompassed within the scope of the invention.

Turning now to the drawings, FIG. 1 depicts an environment for a portalsite mapping system with a dynamic site map portlet according to oneembodiment. In the depicted embodiment, the portal site mapping system100 includes a plurality of client computer systems 102 in communicationwith a portal server 106 via a network 104. Each client computer system102 may include a browser 112 to allow a user of the client computersystem 102 to access and view information on various network sites. Theportal server 106, in turn, may be in communication with one or moreapplication servers 108 via network 104. The portal server 106 provides,in one embodiment, a portal site that may be accessed and viewed by theuser of a client computer system 102 using browser 142. Portal server106 includes, in the depicted embodiment, a session manager 114, aportal page aggregator 116, one or more portlet applications 118, and adynamic site map portlet 120. Each application server 108 may containone or more backend applications 122 to provide content, information, orservices to be displayed on the portal site provided by the portalserver 106. Optional database 110 may be in communication with theportal server 106 for storage of generated site maps, content, userpreferences, etc.

In the portal site mapping system 100, any of the client computersystems 102, the portal server 106, the application servers 108, and thedatabase 110 may be located at the same location, such as in the samebuilding or computer lab, or could be remote. While the term “remote” isused with reference to the distance between the components of the portalsite mapping system 100, the term is used in the sense of indicatingseparation of some sort, rather than in the sense of indicating a largephysical distance between the systems. For example, any of thecomponents of the portal site mapping system 100 may be physicallyadjacent or located as part of the same computer system in some networkarrangements, such as when the portal server 106 and one or moreapplication servers 108 are part of the same computer system.

Client computer system 102 may include one or more personal computers,workstations, servers, mainframe computers, notebook or laptopcomputers, desktop computers, PDAs, set-top boxes, mobile phones,wireless devices, or the like. In some embodiments, client computersystem 102 may be a computer system as described in relation to FIG. 2.The client computer system 102 may be in wired or wireless communicationwith network 104. A portal user may utilize a client computer system 102and its associated browser 112 to facilitate the access and viewing ofcontent, such as a portal page, from the portal server 106. Browser 112may be a graphical browser application that allows a user to viewInternet or intranet content such as Microsoft Corporation's InternetExplorer™, Netscape Communication Corporation's Navigator™, MozillaFoundation's Mozilla, Apple Corporation's Safari™, etc. Using a browser112, a user may connect to a given portal site, download content fromthat site, and view that content (including generated portal site mapsas described herein).

Network 104 may be any type of data communications channel, such as theInternet, an intranet, a LAN, a WAN, an Ethernet network, a wirelessnetwork, a proprietary network, or a broadband cable network. TheInternet or other public network may be particularly useful as network104 when the client computer systems 102 are accessing a public portalsite hosted on portal server 106 as communications between these systemswill be facilitated. Similarly, a corporate intranet may serve asnetwork 104 for communications with an internal corporate portal. Thoseskilled in the art will recognize, however, that the invention describedherein may be implemented utilizing any type of data communicationschannel or combinations of data communication channels.

The portal server 106 provides an interface between the users on theclient computer systems 102 and other content, including content locatedon backend applications 122 and/or application servers 108. The portalserver 106 may be one or more of any type of computer system, includingservers, personal computers, workstations, mainframe computers, notebookor laptop computer, desktop computers, or the like. In some embodiments,the portal server 106 may be a computer system as described in relationto FIG. 2. An example portal server 106 is an IBM® eServer® server orsimilar server. In this example, the portal server 106 may includesoftware such as IBM®'s WebSphere® Portal application that provides anintegrated portal solution for business-to-employee,business-to-consumer, and business-to-business interactions.

The portal server 106 may contain both content provided by the operatorof the portal server 106 as well as content provided by any of thebackend applications 122 and/or application servers 108. The content maybe displayed to the user via an initial view, or front page, whichincludes a variety of modules or frames, as well as optional additionalportal pages. The format or layout of each page of the portal may beconfigured by an administrator, based on user preferences, etc. Eachmodule or frame may contain content provided by the portal server 106,an application server 108, a backend application 122, or any combinationthereof. The content may include any type of information, applications,databases, services, informational content, e-commerce offerings,advertisements, etc. Some of the modules and frames may beuser-selectable, whereas others may be mandatory elements of the portal.A user may access the content by selecting or interacting with theappropriate link from the portal site. For example, a general useInternet portal may contain a news module, a sports module, and aweather module. Each of these modules in this example may contain anindication of content located in a backend application 122 on anapplication server 108. In this example, a user might see a fewheadlines in the new module and if they select one of the headlines, theportal server 106 would facilitate acquiring additional content (i.e.,the full news story) from the backend application 124 that provides thenews module. The customizability of portals, particular customizationperformed by portal users, makes the disclosed portal site map systemparticularly useful, as the disclosed system may create a portal sitemap independent of any customization of a portal site performed by aportal user.

Each application server 108 may include one or more backend applications122. Backend applications 122 may be any application that may be used toprovide services, content, or information to a portal site. Examplebackend applications 122 include news, sports ticker, weather, skireport, search, television guide, movie times, or any other types ofapplications. Each application server 108 may be one or more of any typeof computer system, including servers, personal computers, workstations,mainframe computers, notebook or laptop computer, desktop computers, orthe like. In one embodiment, an application server 108 may be an IBM®eServer® or similar server. Each application server 108 may be operatedby the same company (e.g., in a corporate intranet) as the portal server106, by different companies or providers, etc.

As described previously, the portal server 106 may contain a sessionmanager 114, a portal page aggregator 116, and one or more portletapplications 118. The session manager 114 may manage sessions for aplurality of users of client computer system 102, allowing each portaluser to be individually authenticated, customize their portal view,choose portlets, etc. The session manager 114 may manage both the user'ssession identifier with the portal server 106 and any user sessions withan application server 108. The portal page aggregator 116 may create,aggregate, and/or organize the content to be displayed on a portal pagethat will ultimately be transmitted and displayed to the portal user.The format or layout of each page of the portal may be configured by anadministrator, based on user preferences (via session manager 112), etc.In one embodiment, some content may be displayed in frames on the portalpage. Each module or frame may contain content provided by the portalserver 106, an application server 108, a backend application 122, or anycombination thereof. For example, a frame may contain content from aparticular backend application 122 and/or application server 108, suchas a news service backend application 122 that provides news to users.In an alternative embodiment, a frame may contain content from multiplesources, such as a frame that contains content from two backendapplications 122. The portal page aggregator 116 may create multiplepages to be displayed that may be switched based on the user identity,user permissions or authorizations, actions of the user (e.g., selectingoptions that result in a new page), user requests for content from abackend application 122, etc.

The one or more portlet applications 118 of the portal server mayprovide for interaction with the application server 108 in oneembodiment. The portlet application 118 may receive communications fromthe application server 108, such as content that was requested by a useron a client computer system 102. The portlet application 118 may alsotransmit information to the application server 108, such as requestsfrom the user for content, application session data, etc.

The portal server 106 may also contain a dynamic site map portlet 120.The dynamic site map portlet 120, as described in more detailsubsequently, may dynamically generate a portal site map byinterrogating the internal structure of a portal and portlet pages. Thedynamic site map portlet 120 may find nodes that are compositionelements and crawl these composition elements (such as pages, portlets,or links within portlets) for detailed information to create the dynamicsite map. The resulting dynamic site map displayed to a user of theportlet may thus advantageously include both portlet pages andinformation about the portlets within the pages. The dynamic site mapportlet 120 also may report any changes in the portlet configurationthrough the use of dynamic interrogation, providing an up-to-date sitemap for users of the dynamic site map portlet 120. Because the dynamicsite map portlet 120 uses dynamic interrogation, whenever the portalconfiguration changes (e.g., new portlets or portal pages are added orremoved) the dynamic site map portlet 120 will report or reflect thosechanges. A user may view the portal site map to determine the locationof portal content, to discover new content of the portal, or to orientthemselves within the portal site.

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of one embodiment of a computer system200 suitable for use as a component of the portal site mapping system100, such as a client computer system 102, a portal server 106, or anapplication server 108. Other possibilities for the computer system 200are possible, including a computer having capabilities other than thoseascribed herein and possibly beyond those capabilities, and they may, inother embodiments, be any combination of processing devices such asworkstations, servers, mainframe computers, notebook or laptopcomputers, desktop computers, PDAs, mobile phones, wireless devices,set-top boxes, or the like. At least certain of the components ofcomputer system 200 may be mounted on a multi-layer planar ormotherboard (which may itself be mounted on the chassis) to provide ameans for electrically interconnecting the components of the computersystem 200.

In the depicted embodiment, the computer system 200 includes a processor202, storage 204, memory 206, a user interface adapter 208, and adisplay adapter 210 connected to a bus 214. The bus 214 facilitatescommunication between the processor 202 and other components of thecomputer system 200, as well as communication between components.Processor 202 may include one or more system central processing units(CPUs) or processors to execute instructions, such as an IBM® PowerPC™processor, an Intel Pentium® processor, an Advanced Micro Devices Inc.processor or any other suitable processor. The processor 202 may utilizestorage 204, which may be non-volatile storage such as one or more harddrives, tape drives, diskette drives, CD-ROM drive, DVD-ROM drive, orthe like. The processor 202 may also be connected to memory 206 via bus212, such as via a memory controller hub (MCH). System memory 206 mayinclude volatile memory such as random access memory (RAM) or doubledata rate (DDR) synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM).

The user interface adapter 208 may connect the processor 202 with userinterface devices such as a mouse 220 or keyboard 222. The userinterface adapter 208 may also connect with other types of user inputdevices, such as touch pads, touch sensitive screens, electronic pens,microphones, etc. The bus 212 may also connect the processor 202 to adisplay, such as an LCD display or CRT monitor, via the display adapter210.

FIG. 3 depicts a conceptual illustration of software components of aportal server with a dynamic site map portlet according to oneembodiment. The portal server 106 of the depicted embodiment includes asession manager 114, a portal page aggregator 116, one or more portletapplications 118, a dynamic site map portlet 120, a communicationsmodule 302, and a user interface module 304. The session manager 114,portal page aggregator 116, portlet applications 118, and dynamic sitemap portlet 120 are described in relation to FIG. 1 and the descriptionwill not be repeated for the sake of brevity. The communications module302 may facilitate communications to and from the portal server 106 vianetwork 104, such as communications with client computer systems 102 orapplication servers 108. The user interface module 304 may receive userinput from user input devices such as a mouse or keyboard and may alsoprovide output to a user, such as via a display or speaker.

The dynamic site map portlet 120 of the disclosed embodiment includestwo sub-modules, a navigation node crawler 306 and a node collector 308.As described in more detail in relation to FIGS. 4-6, the navigationnode crawler 306 may find all of the nodes in a portal that arecomposition elements and crawl each for additional information in orderto generate a portal site map. The navigation node crawler 306 crawlseach page of a portal site to determine information about those pages aswell as any portlets associated with those pages. The results of thecrawling of the navigation node crawler 306 may be stored in the nodecollector 308. Generated portlet site maps may also be stored in thenode collector 308. In one embodiment, items need only be stored in thenode collector 308 until used for a portal site map.

FIG. 4 depicts an example of a flow chart for generating a portal pageand a portal site map according to one embodiment. In one embodiment,components of a portal server 106 such as a dynamic site map portlet 120may perform the elements of flow chart 400. In the depicted embodiment,flow chart 400 begins with element 402, where a portal server 106 mayreceive (via the communications module 302) a user request for a portalpage, such as when a user selects or otherwise accesses the portal pagewith their browser 112. At element 404, the session manager 114 may thengenerate a portal page which the communications module 302 transmits tothe user's browser 112 via network 104. The portal page generated atelement 404 may be a generic portal page that provides a mechanism for aportal user to enter authentication information, such as a useridentifier (ID) and password. Login information and user preferences mayoptionally be stored as a cookie on the client computer system 102 sothat information and preferences do not need to be reentered each timethe user accesses the portal. When the user has a cookie on their clientcomputer system 102, the portal server 106 accesses this cookie andadjusts the information or content later sent to the user for display.

After initiating a user portal session by authenticating a portal user,the portal page aggregator 116 of the portal server 106 may, at element408, determine the portal configuration for the user's portal session,including the number of pages for the portal and the configuration ofeach of those pages. The configuration of each portal page may includethe identity and location of portlets on each portal page. Theparticular portlets for display (as well as their location on a portalpage) may be determined by an administrator, determined by userpreference, default portlets, or any combination of these or otherfactors. For example, the portal page aggregator 116 may determine that,for a particular portal user session, two portal pages are required,with one page having five portlets specified by an administrator and thesecond page having four portlets chosen by the user out of a list of tenportlets (and specified in their preferences). In this example, theportal page aggregator 116 may also determine that a third page isunsuitable for the user as they do not have the proper rights orpermissions. While one example is described herein, the portal pageaggregator 116 may use any methodology to determine the portalconfiguration. After determining the configuration of the portal, theportal page aggregator 116 may aggregate the contents of the portal pagebased on the determined configuration at element 410. To aggregate theportal page contents, the portal page aggregator 116 may, in conjunctionwith the portlet applications 118, acquire content from one or morebackend applications 122 to be used in creating the portal page.

If a site map portlet is determined to be part of the aggregated portalpage at decision block 412 (such as if a user or administrator specifiedthe portlet), the method of flow chart 400 continues to element 414. Ifthe site map portlet is not part of the portal page, the method of flowchart continues to element 424, where the portal page aggregator 116uses the aggregated content for the items in the portal configuration togenerate a portal response. The portal response may be a portal pagedescription (in HTML or other descriptive language) that includes thecontributions of each portlet, the final portal page configuration, etc.The communications module 302 may next, at element 426, transmit thegenerated response to the user on a client computer system 102 fordisplay on their browser, after which flow chart 400 either terminatesor returns to element 408 for further cycles of portal page constructionand response generation.

When a site map portlet has been requested, the dynamic site map portlet120 may receive information on the navigational construct of the portalat element 414. The navigational construct of a portal may include aplurality of nodes, where each node is an element in the navigationalhierarchy and has a parent and one or more children. After receiving theinformation on the navigational construct, the dynamic site map portlet120 may, at element 416, clear the node collection in the node collector308 if there are any items in the node collection. The node collectionmay be a file or other data structure that include a list of nodes inthe navigational construct as well as information about those nodes,providing a mechanism to store information about portlet pages and theircontents. The node collection may have information within it fromprevious executions of the elements of flow chart 400 and clearing suchinformation may provide a more accurate portal site map. At element 416,the dynamic site map portlet 120 may determine the root node of thenavigation construct, such as by analyzing the information on thenavigational construct received at element 414. The root node has noparent node and is instead above each other node in the navigationalhierarchy. Once the root node has been determined, an indication of theroot node may be stored in the node collection of the node collector308.

Once the root node of a navigational construct is known, the navigationnode crawler 306 of the dynamic site map portlet 120 may recursivelycrawl through all of the nodes beneath the root node (and thecomposition subtree for each, if applicable) to determine the contentsof each node (page), including any portlet information. As each noderepresents a page of the portal site, the composition subtree (alsoknown as a navigation tree) beneath a node represents the arrangement ofportlets on the page represented by that node. The composition subtreemay be a programmatic description of the portlets of a page and theirarrangement on the page (i.e., size, which column, location, etc.). Thenavigation node crawler 306 may determine information about eachportlet, including a title, description, links within the portlet, orthe like. The navigation node crawler 306 may thus crawl through eachnode of the portal site at element 420. The recursive crawl of thenavigation node crawler 306 through the nodes and their compositionsubtrees is described in more detail in relation to FIG. 5.

After the recursive crawl through the nodes is complete, the method offlow chart 400 may continue to element 422, where the dynamic site mapportlet 120 generates the content for the site map portlet. Thedisplayed content of the site map portlet may include a textual orgraphical view of the site map. The user may, in some embodiments, havethe option to toggle between the textual and graphical views, zoom in orout of a graphical view, or change the view by panning left, right, upor down. The user may also be able to specify the level of pages to show(i.e., expanding or compressing branches) or control the types of pagesto show. The dynamic site map portlet 120 may modify the site mapdisplay as necessary to respond to user preferences. The dynamic sitemap portlet 120 may also add links to provide direct navigation to thepages from the site map, allowing users to quickly and efficientlychange their view to a desired page.

Once the site map content has been generated, the content may be addedto the generated response at element 424 as the contribution of the sitemap portlet. The site map portlet may thus be added to the portal pagedisplayed to the portal user, providing the user with a site map of theportal. The user may be able to customize their site map view in someembodiments by choosing the level of fidelity of the map, the appearanceof the display, etc. The method of flow chart 400 may then eitherterminate or return to element 408 for additional processing.

In an alternative embodiment, the methodology of flow chart 400 may alsobe applied to portals that have portlets with different content orviews. Portlets may have different content or views, typically in theform of Java™ Server Pages (JSPs), depending on the user's profile orother factors. The dynamic site map portlet 120 may, in creation of thesite map, run a real-time simulation of all possible portletrequest-response pairs and then display the outcomes of this simulationas part of the site map view. This feature may ensure that all possiblesite map nodes will be displayed in the portal site map, including nodesthat the user does not see in their portal display. The dynamic site mapportlet 120 may accomplish this by simulating different request troughthe portlet code to determine all possible logical responses that couldbe included in the portlet response and, after this is complete,displaying all possible configurations of how the site is organized inthe site map. This feature may be particularly useful where a portletcontains steps in a multi-step process, as all of the different branchesof the multi-step process may be therefore included in the site map. Byquerying the number of steps in a multi-step process and interrogatingthe stage of completion in the process, the disclosed system may notonly display all possible states (i.e., views) within the portlet butalso identify and display the state of completion for each step (i.e.,number and status of each step in a multi-step process) and then displaythis state completion status within the generated site map.

The disclosed methodology may also prove useful is that it may showusers not only what is currently visible on the site map but also whatis possible to be shown. For example, the dynamic site map portlet 120may show both the current organization of the portal site as well as thepossibilities of the categorization of hidden additional content thatthe user may not know is available. When combined with embedded links inthe portal site map, a user may quickly access new content. In someembodiments, the nodes and content displayed to the user on the site mapmay be limited to items for which the user has the appropriateauthorization. In a further embodiment, items for which the user mayseek the appropriate authorization may also be shown on the site map.

FIG. 5 depicts an example of a flow chart for recursively crawlingthrough navigation nodes and their composition subtrees according to oneembodiment. In one embodiment, the navigation node crawler 306 of thedynamic site map portlet 120 may perform the elements of flow chart 500as part of performing element 420 of flow chart 400 of FIG. 4. In thedepicted embodiment, flow chart 500 begins with element 502, where thenavigation node crawler 306 may determine the title of the current nodefor the current locale within the navigation tree. At element 504, thenavigation node crawler 306 may determine the identity of the childrenof the current node. As will be described subsequently, elements 506through 528 may be repeated for each child of the current node for arecursive crawl through all content beneath the current node.

The recursive loop for a particular node may begin at element 506, wherethe navigation node crawler 306 may determine the title for a child ofthe current node. After determining the child title, the navigation nodecrawler 306 may add the child title and the level of the child in thehierarchy to a node map. As the methodology of flow chart 500 isrepeated for each child of the current node, each node will be added tothe node map. The navigation node crawler 306 may also optionally add alink such as a uniform resource location (URL) to the node map atelement 512. A URL link for a child may enhance user functionality ofthe site map portlet by allowing the user to quickly and easily accessthe content associated with the child node by selecting the link.

The method of flow chart 500 may continue to element 514, where thenavigation node crawler 306 may determine the existence of a contentnode for the child. The navigation node crawler 306 may determine if thechild content node discovered at element 514 includes any content atdecision block 516. If the child content node has no content, the methodof flow chart 500 continues to element 522. If the child content nodehas content, flow chart 500 continues to decision block 518, where thenavigation node crawler 306 determines whether the child content node isa composition node. If the child content node is not a composition node,flow chart 500 continues to element 522; otherwise, flow chart 500continues to element 520 where the navigation node crawler 306 discoversthe composition subtree for the child. As will be described in moredetail in relation to FIG. 6, the navigation node crawler 306 maydiscover the composition subtree for the child by interrogating eachportlet of the node for a description, title, or other information. Thenavigation node crawler 306 may also add the composition subtree for thechild to the node map.

After discovering the composition subtree for a child node (ordetermining that no content existed for that child node), the navigationnode crawler 306 may add the node map to the node collection at element522. The navigation node crawler 306 may then create a new node map forthe next child at element 524. At element 526, the navigation nodecrawler 306 may discover the composition subtree of the child of thenext level (i.e., current level +1). This may allow the navigation nodecrawler 306 to recursively interrogate any nodes that are children ofthe current child node and thus to find all nodes beneath the currentchild node in the hierarchy. At decision block 528, the navigation nodecrawler 306 may determine if there are more children to analyze. If so,the method of flow chart 500 may return to element 506 for continuedprocessing for the next child. If there are no more children, the methodof flow chart 500 may terminate. In one embodiment, processing mayreturn to flow chart 400 when flow chart 500 terminates.

FIG. 6 depicts an example of a flow chart for determining thearrangement and content of portlets on a portal page according to oneembodiment. In one embodiment, the navigation node crawler 306 of thedynamic site map portlet 120 may perform the elements of flow chart 600as part of performing elements 520 or 526 of flow chart 500 of FIG. 5.As will be described in more detail subsequently, the methodology ofFIG. 6 may discover the composition subtree for the child byinterrogating each portlet of the node for a description, title, orother information. In the depicted embodiment, flow chart 600 beginswith element 602, where the 5 navigation node crawler 306 determines theportlets for the particular node, or page. The navigation node crawler306 may next create a collection to hold portlet information associatedwith the node at element 604.

For a particular node, the method of flow chart 600 repeats elements 606through 618 for each portlet of a node in order to acquire informationabout each portlet of the node. To begin, the navigation node crawler306 may set the portlet name and title fields to an empty string atelement 606. The navigation node crawler 306 may then determine the nextportlet of the node at element 608 and determine the portlet title andportlet definition (if available) at element 610, such as byinterrogating the portlet. If a portlet definition for the portlet isavailable (as determined at decision block 612), the navigation nodecrawler 306 may set the portlet name as the determined portletdefinition at element 614. This may allow the navigation node crawler306 to utilize the portlet name field to store a portlet definition. Thenavigation node crawler 306 may adding the portlet title and name to thecollection at element 616. The collection may be returned to the callingfunction (flow chart 500) as part of the results of the method of FIG.6. The navigation node crawler 306 may then determine at decision block618 whether more portlets need be interrogated. If all of the portletshave been interrogated, the method of flow chart 600 terminates and thecollection may be passed to the calling function. If more portlets existfor the node, flow chart 600 returns to element 606 for interrogation ofthe next portlet. The portlet name and definition for this portlet mayalso be added to the collection for later use.

FIG. 7 depicts an example of a generated dynamic portal site mapaccording to one embodiment. The portal site map 700 may result from theexecution of elements of flow chart 400 of FIG. 4, such as element 422,by the dynamic site map portlet 120. The generated portal site map 700may include a portal title 702 and one or more portal pages 704. In oneembodiment, different versions of a portal page 704 may exist dependingon a user's authorizations, roles and responsibilities, preferences,etc. For example, portal site map 700 includes two different portalpages 704 with the title ‘HOME’. In this example, one portal page 704may be a generic home page for all employees of a corporate portal whileanother might be specific to call center employees. In some embodiments,portal users will only see portal pages 704 for which they haveauthorization on their portal site map 700.

Each portal page 704 of the portal site map 700 may have one or moreassociated portlets 706. In some embodiments, all possible portlets 706for a portal page 704 are displayed, while in other embodiments onlyauthorized portlets 706 are shown. The portlets 706 may also have anembedded link in some embodiments so that a portal user may easily findthe content associated with that portlet 706 on the portal site map 700.In an alternative embodiment, the portal site map 700 may also includemulti-state portlets 708, including all possible states of themulti-state portlets 708. One skilled in the art will recognize that theportal site map 700 may have any configuration or design and may includeany type of information relating to the portal.

In general, the routines executed to implement the embodiments of theinvention, may be part of an operating system or a specific application,component, program, module, object, or sequence of instructions. Thecomputer program of the present invention typically is comprised of amultitude of instructions that will be translated by the native computerinto a machine-readable format and hence executable instructions. Also,programs are comprised of variables and data structures that eitherreside locally to the program or are found in memory or on storagedevices. In addition, various programs described hereinafter may beidentified based upon the application for which they are implemented ina specific embodiment of the invention. However, it should beappreciated that any particular program nomenclature that follows isused merely for convenience, and thus the invention should not belimited to use solely in any specific application identified and/orimplied by such nomenclature.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit ofthis disclosure that the present invention contemplates methods,systems, and media for dynamically generating a portal site map. It isunderstood that the form of the invention shown and described in thedetailed description and the drawings are to be taken merely asexamples. It is intended that the following claims be interpretedbroadly to embrace all the variations of the example embodimentsdisclosed.

1. A method for generating a site map for a portal site, the methodcomprising: determining a root node of a navigational construct of theportal site, the root node having one or more child nodes; recursivelycrawling through the one or more child nodes of the root node todiscover a composition subtree for at least one of the child nodes, thecomposition subtree comprising information relating to one or moreportlets associated with at least one of the child nodes; and generatinga portal site map, the portal site map comprising an indication of theone or more child nodes and an indication of the one or more portletsassociated with at least one of the child nodes.
 2. The method of claim1, further comprising generating a portlet response based on thegenerated portal site map.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprisingbefore determining the root node of the navigational construct, clearinga node collection.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining theroot node of the navigational construct comprises receiving informationon the navigation construct of the portal site.
 5. The method of claim1, wherein recursively crawling through the one or more child nodes ofthe root node to discover a composition subtree for at least one of thechild nodes comprises discovering the composition subtree for each childnode of the portal site.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein recursivelycrawling through the one or more child nodes of the root node todiscover a composition subtree for at least one of the child nodescomprises: determining a title for a child node; adding the title to anode map; and in the event the child node is a composition node,discovering portlets of a composition subtree for the child node andadding information relating to the portlets to the node map.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein generating the portal site map comprisesadding one or more links to the portal site map.
 8. The method of claim1, wherein generating the portal site map comprises generating theportal site map based on input received from a portal user.
 9. Amachine-accessible medium containing instructions effective, whenexecuting in a data processing system, to cause said data processingsystem to perform operations comprising: determining a root node of anavigational construct of the portal site, the root node having one ormore child nodes; recursively crawling through the one or more childnodes of the root node to discover a composition subtree for at leastone of the child nodes, the composition subtree comprising informationrelating to one or more portlets associated with at least one of thechild nodes; and generating a portal site map, the portal site mapcomprising an indication of the one or more child nodes and anindication of the one or more portlets associated with at least one ofthe child nodes.
 10. The machine-accessible medium of claim 9, furthercomprising generating a portlet response based on the generated portalsite map.
 11. The machine-accessible medium of claim 9, furthercomprising before determining the root node of the navigationalconstruct, clearing a node collection.
 12. The machine-accessible mediumof claim 9, wherein determining the root node of the navigationalconstruct comprises receiving information on the navigation construct ofthe portal site.
 13. The machine-accessible medium of claim 9, whereinrecursively crawling through the one or more child nodes of the rootnode to discover a composition subtree for at least one of the childnodes comprises discovering the composition subtree for each child nodeof the portal site.
 14. The machine-accessible medium of claim 9,wherein recursively crawling through the one or more child nodes of theroot node to discover a composition subtree for at least one of thechild nodes comprises: determining a title for a child node; adding thetitle to a node map; and in the event the child node is a compositionnode, discovering portlets of a composition subtree for the child nodeand adding information relating to the portlets to the node map.
 15. Themachine-accessible medium of claim 9, wherein generating the portal sitemap comprises adding one or more links to the portal site map.
 16. Themachine-accessible medium of claim 9, wherein generating the portal sitemap comprises generating the portal site map based on input receivedfrom a portal user.
 17. A portal site mapping system, the systemcomprising: a communications module in communication with a clientcomputer system via a network; a portal page aggregator to aggregatecontent from one or more portlets to generate a portal response fortransmission to the client computer system; and a dynamic site mapportlet in communication with the portal page aggregator, the dynamicsite map portlet being adapted to dynamically generate a portal sitemap, the portal site map comprising information relating to the one ormore portlets.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein the dynamic site mapportlet further comprises a navigation node crawler, the navigation nodecrawler being adapted to recursively crawling through one or more nodesof the portal to discover a composition subtree for at least one of thenodes, the composition subtree comprising information relating to one ormore portlets.
 19. The system of claim 17, wherein the dynamic site mapportlet further comprises a node collector, the node collector beingadapted to store information relating to one or more nodes and one ormore composition subtrees.
 20. The system of claim 17, wherein theportal response comprises the generated portal site map.